Food recall news all in one place

Remember that peanut butter scare? We wondered whether the flavored dog treats we'd bought were on the recall list, but finding the latest information seemed difficult.

Or maybe you have a general question about the safety of food: Will that package of hot dogs you opened stay good for a week or a month? (One week.) How about bacon? Is it indestructible? (No.)

A new government Web site can help us out.

We've sung the praises of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site (and e-mail alerts) as a way to keep informed about hazardous products that have been recalled. Similarly, the new FoodSafety.gov Web site centralizes information on food recalls -- and lots of food safety tips and information about food poisoning and other food-related illnesses. Plus, you can report a food problem.

(That's on top of news that the Food and Drug Administration has established an electronic portal for the food industry to quickly report problems to the government. "Facilities that manufacture, process or hold food for consumption in the United States now must tell the FDA within 24 hours if they find a reasonable probability that an article of food will cause severe health problems or death to a person or an animal," an FDA press release said. That's good to know.)

The FoodSafety.gov Web site combines information from three major federal sources -- the FDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Plus you can sign up for e-mail alerts about recalls and other food news. We did.

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